


Alphabet Boy

by Saltikitti



Category: Death Note, Death Note: Another Note
Genre: Angst, Depression, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 15:57:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5423126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saltikitti/pseuds/Saltikitti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of L's first successor, A.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alphabet Boy

**Author's Note:**

> A was the first successor to L and was briefly mentioned in Death Note: Another Note. Since no one knows anything about A, I decided to write a story about him. Updates on this fic will be very slow (unless it gets popular.) By slow, I mean one update every 1-3 months because I'm usually really busy (and lazy.) This is my first fic so I hope you enjoy it! (Please note that I will occasionally go back through chapters and rewrite/revise things.)

Someone has a gun.  
That was the first thought of many kids in the cafeteria when they heard the loud bang. And no one could blame them for thinking so, since it was not uncommon for a kid to get their hands on a gun and attempt to kill someone with it. To be completely honest, the kids at Wammy's House practically expected someone to do it, given their mental states and past traumas it would only be natural for someone to snap and go on a killing spree. From prior lessons on what to do in this type of event, they knew what to do for the best chance of surviving: play dead.  
That's how the young boy called A, more commonly known as Ace, ended up in his current position; sitting alone at a cafeteria table and surrounded by the "dead" bodies of his young comrades who just a minute ago had been eating lunch along with him. Ace marked his page with a bookmark he had crafted out of green felt and turned around to see where the supposed gunshot had come from, but instead of a shooter he saw a grinning teen with messy black hair and a dropped text book at his feet.  
"Beyond," Ace sighed as he turned back around to resume reading his book, "that wasn't necessary." His blue eyes skimmed over the black print as he started to read again, the white of the paper reflecting onto his pupils.  
If a person observed the rate at which Ace was flipping the pages they would most likely come to the conclusion that he had already read the book before and was just looking over it again to refresh his memory, for it was practically impossible for someone to read that many words so quickly. However, that person didn't know about a factor that could completely change their conclusion; a factor that upon first glance no one could have considered. The crucial factor was that Ace was no ordinary teen; he was what most people would refer to as a prodigy. To be more exact; he was a successor to a genius detective known as L, and he had spent his entire life trying to be as great as him. Taking that factor into consideration made the speed at which he was reading unsurprising; for only the smartest could succeed L.  
The other kids in the cafeteria started to get up when they realized there wasn't a shooter and before long almost all the kids in the cafeteria were back to eating their lunches.  
One of the girls sitting next to Ace started to reach over to his lunch in an attempt to get some apple slices from off his tray, but before her fingers were able to touch them he slapped her hand away.  
"It's not like you’re going to eat them!" She pouted, observing that he hadn't touched his food and was instead just reading a book.  
Ace put his book down, grabbed an apple slice and promptly bit into it, making it a point that he was in fact going eat them.  
The girl huffed in annoyance but didn't argue any further, she instead started talking with her friends about new clothing.  
Someone slammed a lunch tray down next to Ace, nearly making him piss himself, and he didn't even need to look up to know that it was Beyond.  
"Don't scare me like that." Ace said sternly as he ate another apple slice.  
"It's not like I meant to." He replied lazily, his tone matching his appearance.  
The young prodigy sighed as he pushed some peas around his tray, "You didn't need to scare everyone earlier by dropping the textbook."  
"I was bored." Beyond said, his mouth full of biscuit, "And everyone looked like they were about to fall asleep so I took the liberty of being their alarm clock."  
"We always look like that, dummy." Ace gestured to the dark bags under their colleagues' eyes.  
"Oh, yeah..." Beyond touched the bags under his eyes as if it he had never noticed them before, "But how come yours aren't as dark as mine?"  
Ace sighed at the stupidity of the question, "I don't know; I probably just get more sleep than you."  
Beyond shrugged it off and started eating again, his lips smacking together as he chewed loudly, much to Ace's annoyance.  
"What are you doing after lunch?" Beyond asked, the chewing noises coming to an abrupt stop.  
About 8 years ago, when Ace had only been at Wammy's House for a few months, Beyond had asked the same question, and desperate for a friend, Ace had said yes. After lunch Beyond dragged him off to go see the 'cool thing' he had found outside, which had turned out to be a fairly large spider feasting on a butterfly. That was enough to cause the 7 year old prodigy to vomit all over himself and a nearby bush which he still feels embarrassed about to this day. Ever since that unfortunate event Ace swore his heart skipped a beat whenever he was faced with the question.  
He looked at Beyond with narrowed eyes, "Why?"  
The black haired boy grinned, his eyes bright with enthusiasm, "I found something really cool outside and I want you to come see it."  
Ace could feel chills up his spine but he felt it would be rude to decline Beyond's offer without even finding out the details, "What is it?"  
"I can't just tell you," Beyond replied as he grabbed a spoon and placed a single pea on it, "it's a surprise." As soon as the words left his mouth he promptly flung the pea across the room, and despite not aiming it at anyone, the green seed still managed to hit a freckle-covered cheek.  
The freckled-boy's head snapped up, his eyes darting around the room as he tried to find the pea-launcher. "Who did that!?" He yelled as he rose from his seat, "Who flung something at me?!"  
Ace turned his attention to Beyond, who was desperately trying not to laugh as the freckled-boy continued to demand an answer.  
"Beyond..." Ace whispered scoldingly as a few kids started being blamed for the launched pea.  
“You did it didn’t you!?” The freckled boy screeched at a girl who was sitting halfway down the table from him.  
The girl, who just a moment ago had been trying to hide a smile, raised an eyebrow “What are you talking about, Jack?”  
“You threw the pea at me! I saw you smiling, you dumb-“ He started shouting insults that would have made even a sailor blush. The girl’s eyes got wider and wider at each insult he threw at her; she wasn’t offended, she knew better than to believe the words of an angry person, but she didn’t particularly enjoy how she was being blamed for something she didn’t do.  
“Yeah, I was smiling,” She admitted, interrupting Jack’s string of insults, “but that doesn’t mean I did it, idiot.”  
“Then why were you smiling?!”  
“I was smiling because when you yell your face looks like a tomato which had been left rotting in a compost bin for 2 weeks.”  
Jack’s face turned an even darker shade of red and the girl grinned. She knew the insult sounded like something a baby would say compared to the insults he had used, but she was still happy with the effect it had on him.  
Ace looked away from the girl and turned back to Beyond, who’s hands were covering the large grin on his face. Tears had formed in the corners of his eyes and his face was turning a dark purple, but Beyond didn’t dare breathe because he had a feeling if he did all laughter he was trying so hard to hold back would spill out of him.  
Ace’s blue eyes stared at Beyond for a moment before he leaned in closer to him and whispered, “You better go admit that you did it before things get any worse.”  
Beyond didn't know what pushed him over the edge, what caused his laughter to escape; perhaps it was the was the way Ace was scolding him like mother would scold a child or maybe it was because the freckled-boy's face had turned a deep red from rage; all he knew was that he honestly didn't care. His laughter echoed around the cafeteria, bouncing off of the walls and into the ears of the kids around him.  
Ace hid his face in his hands, the hot feeling on his cheeks and the tips of his ears growing in intensity with every second that Beyond kept laughing.  
He had a feeling something like was going to happen, but he never thought it would get this bad. "Beyond!" Ace hissed, his voice was whisper but it still had the same threatening tone that a yell would've had.  
Beyond, who had started to fall off of the bench, lifted a slender finger. "Hold on." He said between deep breaths as he tried to stop laughing, "J-just give me a moment."  
The laughter soon slowed to a stop, but the boy's smile stayed, stretching all the way from one ear to the other.  
The cafeteria was silent, but not in the normal "no one spoke" way. It was the type of silence that people imagined came after death and which could drive a man insane. The only word that could properly describe this type of silence was "nothing."  
First Jack's eyes moved, then his freckle covered face, and finally the rest of his body. It was almost if he was a doll which required someone to manually move each part of his body to have him pose.  
"You…" He said between clenched teeth and with a voice laced with enough venom to kill a man, "You did it, didn't you?" It more of an accusation than a question, but Beyond still gave an answer.  
"Why are you accusing me? I've done nothing wrong." He said, sticking his lip out in a pout. It seemed like he was attempting a "puppy-dog face" as one would call it, but instead of looking innocent he looked like a goblin.  
"Beyond!" Ace hissed at him again, but like last time the only thing Beyond did in response was hold up his index finger.  
"You shot that pea at me!" Jack yelled, getting tired of the antics performed by the boy he knew was guilty.  
Beyond let out an exaggerated gasp, and brought his hand to his upper chest in mock offense, "I would never do such a horrible thing!" At this point Beyond was trying to see how red he could get the freckled-boy's face; he didn’t even consider the repercussions that could happen as a result.  
"You're going to get yourself punched." Ace said as he moved a piece of platinum blonde hair away from where it was covering his eye. The single freckle near his left tear duck appeared for a brief moment before his hair fell back into place, much to his annoyance.  
"You should put your hair up," Beyond said, completely ignoring Jacks shouting, "You'd look nice is some small pigtails."  
"I'm not a girl." Ace replied sharply. It was bad enough having people bulling him about his "girly" body, he didn't want to give them another reason to taunt him.  
"SHUT UP!" Jack screeched; being ignored had put the cherry on his "anger-sundae." He started getting down from where he was standing in the bench, and for a moment Ace thought the boy was going to sit back down and stop screaming, but that wasn't the case. Jack went around the end of the table and started running towards Beyond with intentions that were obviously not good.  
"Shit." Beyond said, eyes widening as he started to get up from his seat, "Shit,shit,shit,shit..." He repeated, coming to the realization that if the kid caught him he would be beaten bloody.  
"Next time I tell you to stop, you need to stop." Ace said, making no move to help Beyond get away from the "demon" coming towards him.  
"Sure, I'll do whatever you want, _Mom._ " He said as he stood up, a small smile tugging at his face.  
Ace stabbed his fork into a pea, well, attempted to; his fork missed it and hit the plastic tray it was on. "Have fun getting beat up. You deserve it for being an idiot." He said under his breath as he attempted to impale the pea again, his level frustration rising each time the fork failed.  
"Hey! I heard that!" Beyond said as he started running away from the freckled boy who, thankfully, had used up some of his stamina in his quick dart around the end of the table. "Here." He said fishing something out of the pocket of his loose fitting jeans. He tossed a crumpled ball of paper at Ace's face before darting down the hallway, the freckled-boy close on his tail and breathing hard.  
It was silent for few moments after that, no one knowing exactly what to do, but soon people returned to their meals and started chatting again as if nothing had happened. The whole thing was unnerving to Ace, and despite being at Wammy’s House for 8 years it never failed to make him uncomfortable. No matter what people saw they would always go back to normal immediately after, making it seem like nothing ever happened in the first place.  
One time, a girl was running outside and she tripped; her head hitting a sharp rock and splitting open. There was blood everywhere and yet only a few people went over to help her, the rest just froze for a moment as if they were in a trance and then continued to play; oblivious to the bleeding girl only feet away.  
Almost everyone at Wammy’s House seemed to be numb and unfeeling; they’re almost like robots.  
Ace rubbed his forehead where the paper had hit him and retrieved the crumpled ball from where it had fallen into his lap; his hands shook from lack of sleep as he unraveled it. The writing was sloppy and illegible, yet after a a few minutes of confusion and failed attempts to read it Ace was able to pull a part of a sentence out of the jumbled mess of letters and blue pen.  
_Behind the building after lunch._ It said; the lines in the letters had become fuzzy from what Ace assumed was Beyond's sweaty hands.  
He sighed and shoved the piece of paper into the right pocket of his grey sweatpants (something that was much more comfortable than jeans in his opinion) and looked around the cafeteria where people had started to finish their lunches and put back their trays. Ace looked back at his half finished meal, his stomach growling and craving the food that was left, but instead of eating he picked up his tray and dumped the remaining food in the trash. His stomach growled in protest but he ignored it; now, if Beyond showed him something disgusting Ace would have nothing to throw up. His body was not happy about this arrangement and sent dull pains to his stomach area as a desperate plea for food, but Ace knew the risk and he would rather have no food than repeat the accident from 8 years ago.  
Sitting back down on the bench, Ace looked up at the clock on the wall and waited for the bell to ring that would let him leave the cafeteria.


End file.
